The present invention relates to a vehicle seat lock to hold the seat back of a chair in a standing position, the seat back being capable of standing up or falling down.
JP2003-146126A discloses a vehicle seat lock comprising a hook member mounted to the seat back supported to a vehicle body to stand up and fall down, and an opening lever operated by an operating device at a shoulder of the seat back, the hook member and opening lever being pivotally secured on each pivot between a base plate and a cover plate fixed to the seat back.
In the vehicle seat back, the hook member, the pivot on which the hook member is secured and a spring for forcing the hook member are assembled in place when the base plate is joined to the cover plate. Thus, several assembling steps are necessary before the final step in which the base plate is joined to the cover plate, which makes assembling more complicated and reduces efficiency.
JP2001-130295A discloses a vehicle seat lock comprising a hook member mounted to the seat back and engagable with a striker of a vehicle body, and an opening lever connected to an operating knob at the seat back. By the operating knob, the opening lever is operated to allow the hook member to disengage from the striker thereby enabling the seat back to move from a standing position to a falling position.
However, in the vehicle seat lock, a structure that is capable of detecting whether or not the hook member is engaged with the striker is added which makes the structure more complicated and increases its size. It is likely to make it more difficult for the vehicle seat lock to be positioned in a small space of the seat back.